New User's Guide to NEC Published

"Bethesda, MD - Brooke Stauffer, executive director for standards and safety at the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), has written an authoritative new reference book just published by the developer of the NEC®. User's Guide to the National Electrical Code® is now available for purchase from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and technical bookstores everywhere.

User's Guide to the National Electrical Code is a companion volume to NFPA's familiar National Electrical CodeHandbook. But the two books are intended for somewhat different audiences.

"User's Guide is aimed at people who may just be learning about the National Electrical Code for the first time," says the author, Brooke Stauffer. "It provides more background information about how the NEC is developed, how the Code book is organized and the best ways to use it, and about the general requirements of Chapters 1-4 that apply to all electrical installations."

Stauffer is responsible for technical publishing and regulatory affairs at NECA, including the association's well-known National Electrical Installation Standards series of publications. In addition, he writes and lectures widely on Code-related topics, and has been a member of three Code-making panels of the NEC.

"We think the User's Guide to the National Electrical Code will be an ideal textbook for technical-vocational school students, first-year electrical apprentices, first-year electrical engineering students, and anybody else who's just being introduced to the NEC for the first time," explains Mark W. Earley, P.E., NFPA assistant vice president and chief electrical engineer.

"You can almost think of it as 'Code Textbook, Volume 1.' The more comprehensive National Electrical Code Handbook becomes Volume 2, for people with greater knowledge and experience of using the NEC. The two books complement each other and are designed to be used together, but User's Guide to the National Electrical Code comes first. It forms the foundation for building a body of Code knowledge that an electrician, engineer, or other technical person can use and improve on for a lifetime."

"We decided to take a different approach with the User's Guide," adds NECA's Stauffer. ""Where the Handbook explains the Code requirements section-by-section, we thought the Guide should explain the concepts underlying each Article.""

ORDERING INFORMATION: User's Guide to the National Electrical Code is 300 pages in length. Clear text and more than 200 full-color illustrations, along with numerous tables and actual Code extracts, provide an in-depth introduction to and explanation of the world's most widely adopted and used regulatory standard: the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70-2002).

User's Guide to the National Electrical Code is priced at $49.50. It can be ordered at 1-800-344-3555 or www.nfpacatalog.org. ISBN 0-87765-471-9. NFPA Item Code GDNEC02." EC